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SHAKESPEARES 



COMEDIES, 
HISTORIES, & 
TRAGEDIES. 



g to the True CWinall Conies 




Printed by llaac laggard, and Ed. Blount, i <5z$. 



WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 

Engraved by Martin Droeshout for the First Folio of 1623, wherein the 
plays were first assembled. Reproduced from a copy of this Folio owned by 
the New York Public Library. The original measures 7j x 13 in., or 20 x 33 cm. 



SHAKESPEARE AND 
PRECIOUS STONES 



By GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ, Ph.D., A.M., D.Sc. 

THE CURIOUS LORE OF 
PRECIOUS STONES 

Being a description of their sentiments and folklore, super- 
stitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in protection, preven- 
tion, religion and divination, crystal gazing, birth-stones, 
lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal, and planetary. 

THE MAGIC OF JEWELS 
AND CHARMS 

Magic jewels and electric gems ; meteorites or celestial 
stones ; stones of healing ; fabulous stones ; concretions 
and fossils ; snake stones and bezoars ; charms of ancient 
and modern times ; facts and fancies about precious stones. 

EACH : Profusely illustrated in color, doubletone 
and line. Octavo. Handsome cloth binding, gilt 
top, in a box. $6.00 net. Carriage charges extra. 

SHAKESPEARE AND 
PRECIOUS STONES 

Treating of the known references to precious stones in 
Shakespeare's works, with comments as to the origin of 
his material, the knowledge of the poet concerning pre- 
cious stones, and references as to where the precious 
stones of his time came from. 

Four illustrations. Square Octavo. Decorated cloth. $1.25 net. 



SHAKESPEARE 

and 

PRECIOUS STONES 

Treating of 
The Known References of Precious Stones in 
Shakef pea re's Works, with Comments as to the 
Origin of his Material, the Knowledge of the Poet 
Concerning Precious Stones, and References as to 
Where the Precious Stones of his Time came from 
The Author 

GEORGE FREDERICK KUNZ 
Ph.D., Sc.D., A.M. 

Honorary President of the Shakefpeare Garden 
Committee of New York City; Vice Prefident 
of the Permanent Shakefpeare Birthday Com- 
mittee of the City of New York; Member of 
the Executive Committee of the New York City 
Tercentenary Celebration; Member of the Mayor's 
Shakefpeare Celebration Committee of New York 

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 




PHILADELPHIA & LONDON 

IMPRINTED BY 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

At the Washington Square Press 

Upon the Tercentenary of Shakefpeare 

1916 









COPYRIGHT, I9l6, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 



PUBLISHED JULY, I916 



30I9!6 



S>CI.A437451 



TO RUBY, 

MY DAUGHTER, 

WHOSE MOTHER, SOPHIA HANDFORTH, 
WAS BORN IN THE LAND OF 

SHAKESPEARE, 

AND 

TO RUBY'S DAUGHTER, 

GRETEL 

(THE PEARL), 

THIS VOLUME IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED 



FOREWORD 

4 S no writer has made a more beautiful and 
y\ telling use of precious stones in his verse 
than did Shakespeare, the author believed that 
if these references could be gathered together 
for comparison and for quotation, and if this 
were done from authentic and early editions of 
the great dramatist-poet's works, it would give 
the literary and historical student a better under- 
standing as to what gems were used in Shake- 
speare's time, and in what terms he referred to 
them. This has been done here, and comparisons 
are made with the precious stones of the present 
time, showing what mines were known and gems 
were worn in Shakespeare's day, and also some- 
thing of those that were not known then, but are 
known at this time. 

The reader is also provided with a few impor- 
tant data serving to show what could have been 
the sources of the poet's knowledge regarding 
precious stones and whence were derived those 
which he may have seen or of which he may have 

7 



Foreword 

heard. As in this period the beauty of a jewel 
depended as much, or more, upon the elaborate 
setting as upon the purity and brilliancy of the 
gems, the author has given some information 
regarding the leading goldsmith-jewellers, both 
English and French, of Shakespeare's age. Thus 
the reader will find, besides the very full refer- 
ences to the poet's words and clear directions as 
to where all the passages can be located in the 
First Folio of 1623, much material that will stim- 
ulate an interest in the subject and promote 
further independent research. 

The author wishes to express his thanks to 
Dr. Appleton Morgan, President of the Shake- 
speare Society of New York; Miss H. C. Bartlett, 
the Shakespearean bibliophile; the New York 
Public Library and H. M. Leydenberg, assistant 
there; Gardner C. Teall; Frederic W. Erb, as- 
sistant librarian of Columbia University; the 
Council of the Grolier Club, Miss Ruth S. 
Granniss, librarian of the Club, and Vechten 
Waring, all of New York City. 

G. F. K. 

New York 
April, 1916 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 15 

Precious Stones Mentioned in the Plays of 
Shakespeare 73 

Precious Stones Mentioned in the Poems of 
Shakespeare 91 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

William Shakespeare (Engraved by Martin 
Droeshout) Frontispiece 

Five of the Six Authentic Shakespeare Sig- 
natures 44 

Diamond Cutter's Shop, Eighteenth Century. . 58 

From a Portrait of Queen Elizabeth 60 

Printer's Mark of Richard Field 102 



SHAKESPEARE AND PRECIOUS 
STONES 



SHAKESPEARE 
AND PRECIOUS STONES 

SO wide is the range of the immortal verse of 
Shakespeare, and so many and various are 
the subjects he touched upon and adorned with 
the magic beauty of his poetic imagery, that it 
will be of great interest to refer to the allusions 
to gems and precious stones in his plays and 
poems. These allusions are all given in the latter 
part of this volume. What can we learn from 
them of Shakespeare's knowledge of the source, 
quality, and use of these precious stones? 

The great favor that pearls enjoyed in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is, as we see, 
reflected by the frequency with which he speaks 
of them, and the different passages reveal in 
several instances a knowledge of the ancient 
tales of their formation and principal source. 
Thus, in Troilus and Cressida (Act i, sc. i) he 
writes: "Her bed is India; there she lies, a 
pearl;" and Pliny's tales of the pearl's origin 
from dew are glanced at indirectly when he says: 

The liquid drops of tears that you have shed 
Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl. 

Richard III, Act iv, sc. 4. 
First Folio, "Histories," p. 198, col. A, line 17. 
is 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

This is undoubtedly the reason for the com- 
parison between pearls and tears, leading to the 
German proverb, " Perlen bedeuten Tranen" 
(Pearls mean tears), which was then taken to sig- 
nify that pearls portended tears, instead of that 
they were the offspring of drops of liquid. 
The world-famed pearl of Cleopatra, which she 
drank after dissolving it, so as to win her wager 
with Antony that she would entertain him with 
a banquet costing a certain immense sum of 
money, is not even noticed, however, in Shake- 
speare's Antony and Cleopatra. In the poet's 
time pearls were not only worn as jewels, but 
were extensively used in embroidering rich gar- 
ments and upholstery and for the adornment of 
harnesses. To this Shakespeare alludes in the 
following passages: 

The intertissued robe of gold and pearl. 

Henry V, Act iv, sc. I. 
First Folio," Histories," p. 85 (page number repeated), 

col. B, line 13. 

Their harness studded all with gold and pearl. 

Taming of the Shrew, Introd., sc. 2. 
"Comedies," p. 209, col. B, line 33. 

Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss'd with pearl. 

Ibid., Act ii, sc. I. 
"Comedies," p. 217, col. B, line 32. 
16 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Laced with silver, set with pearls. 

Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii, sc. 4. 
"Comedies," p. 112, col. B, line 65. 

Moreover, we have a simile which might almost 
make us suppose that Shakespeare knew some- 
thing of the details of the pearl fisheries, when 
the oysters are piled up on shore and allowed 
to decompose, so as to render it easier to get at 
the pearls, for he makes one of his characters 
say, speaking of an honest man in a poor dwell- 
ing, that he was like a "pearl in your foul 
oyster." {As You Like It, Act v, sc. 4.) 

In the strange transformation told of in Ariel's 
song, the bones of the drowned man have been 
turned to coral, and his eyes to pearls (Tempest, 
Act i, sc. 2). The strange and sometimes mor- 
bid attraction of opposites finds expression in a 
queer old English proverbial saying given in the 
Two Gentlemen of Verona: "Black men are 
pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes." The likeness 
to drops of dew appears where we read of the dew 
that it was "Decking with liquid pearl the bladed 
grass" (Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i, sc. 1), 
and a little later in the same play we read the 
following injunction: 

I most go seek some dewdrops here 

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii, sc. I. 
First Folio, "Comedies," p. 148, col. A, line 38. 
2 17 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

And later still we have the lines: 

That same dew, which sometime on the buds 
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls. 

Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iv, sc. I. 
"Comedies," p. 157, col. B, line 10. 

The pearl as a simile for great and transcendent 

value, perhaps suggested by the Pearl of Great 

Price of the Gospel, is used of Helen of Greece 

in the lines (Troilus and Cressida, Act ii, sc. 2): 

She is a pearl 
Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships. 
At end of "Histories," page unnumbered 
(p. 596 of facsimile), Col. A, line 19. 

This being an allusion to the Greek fleet sent 
out under Agamemnon and Menelaus to bring 
back the truant wife from Troy. The idea of a 
supremely valuable pearl is also apparent in the 
lines embraced in Othello's last words before 
his self-immolation as an expiation of the mur- 
der of Desdemona, where he says of himself: 1 

Whose hand 
Like the base Indian, threw a pearl away 
Richer than all his tribe. 

Othello, Act v, sc. 2. 
"Tragedies," p. 338, col. B, line 53. 

1 For a Venetian tale that may have suggested these lines 
to Shakespeare, see the present writer's "The Magic of 
Jewels and Charms," Philadelphia and London, 1915, 
p. 393. The text of the First Folio gives " Iudean," 
instead of "Indian." 

18 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Although the term "Orient pearl" is that 
used by Shakespeare, and undoubtedly many of 
the older pearls of his day were really of Cin- 
ghalese or Persian origin, the principal source of 
supply was then the Panama fishery discovered 
by the Spaniards about a century earlier and 
actively exploited by them. 2 However, through 
the old inventories made by experts familiar 
with the real sources of precious stones and 
pearls — though not always correctly with those 
of the latter — the term "Orient pearl" came 
in time to denote one of fine hue, so that the 
"orient" of a pearl is still spoken of as signi- 
fying a sheen of the first quality. 

Many fine pearls of the fresh-water variety, 
not the marine pearls, were found in the Scotch 
rivers. It was these that are mentioned as hav- 
ing been obtained by Julius Caesar to ornament 
a buckler which he dedicated to the shrine 
of the Temple of Venus Genetrix. It was also 
this type of pearl that was so eagerly sought by 
the late Queen Victoria when she visited Scot- 
land. Many of these pearls exist in old, espe- 



2 On the pearls brought to Europe from both North and 
South America in Shakespeare's time, see the writer's 
"Gems and Precious Stones of North America," New 
York, 1890, pp. 240-257; 2d. ed., 1892. 

19 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

daily in ecclesiastical jewelry, and several are 
in the Ashburnham missal now in the J. Pierpont 
Morgan library. 3 

Of the glowing ruby Shakespeare seems to 
have known little, since he uses its name only in 
the conventional way to signify a bright or choice 
shade of red. In Measure for Measure (Act ii, 
sc. 4) the "impression of keen whips" produced 
ruby streaks on the skin; even more material- 
istic is the nose "all o'er embellished with 
rubies, carbuncles and sapphires" {Comedy of 
Errors, Act iii, sc. 2). The common employment 
of the designation carbuncle for a precious stone 
and also for a boil was usual from ancient times. 
At least, we might gather from this passage that 
the poet was aware of the distinction between 
ruby and carbuncle (pyrope garnet). Rubies 
as "fairy favors" is a dainty mention in the fairy 
drama Midsummer Night's Dream (Act ii, sc. 1). 
Cesar's wounds "ope their ruby lips" {Julius 
CcBsar, Act iii, sc. 1). Macbeth speaks of the 
"natural ruby of your cheeks," in addressing his 
wife at the apparition of Banquo's ghost; with her 
this is unchanged, while with him terror or remorse 

3 See "The Book of the Pearl," by George Frederick 
Kunz and Charles Hugh Stevenson, New York, 1908, 
colored plate opposite p. 16. 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

has blanched it {Macbeth, Act iii, sc. 4). Lastly, 
the term "ruby lips," so often used by poets, 
is employed by Shakespeare with consummate 
art in Cymbeline (Act ii, sc. 2) where he writes : 

But kiss ; one kiss ! Rubies unparagon'd, 
How dearly they do't. 
First Folio, "Tragedies," p. 376, col. B, line 18. 

The "rubies" of the poet's time were fre- 
quently ruby spinels, or the so-called "balas 
rubies" from Badakshan, in Afghan Turkestan. 
The most noted one in the England of that period 
was probably the one said to have been given 
to Edward the Black Prince by Pedro the Cruel 
of Castile, after the battle of Najera, in 1367, 
and now the most prized adornment of the 
English Crown, excepting the great historic dia- 
mond, the Koh-i-nur. The immense Star of 
South Africa, weighing 531 metric carats, five 
times the weight of the Koh-i-nur, is intrinsi- 
cally worth much more, but lacks the manifold 
dramatic and historic associations of its Indian 

sister. 

Strange to say, the beautiful sapphire is only 
twice named by Shakespeare, once as an adjunct 
to the pearl in embroidery {Merry Wives of 
Windsor, Act v, sc. 5). The single mention of 
chrysolite is much more impressive: 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

If heaven would make me such another world, 
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite! 

Othello, Act v, sc. 2. 
"Tragedies," p. 337, col. A, line 5. 

Chrysolite (peridot, or olivine) was regarded 
in Shakespeare's time and earlier as of excep- 
tional rarity. The fine peridots of the Chapel 
of the Three Kings in Cologne Cathedral were 
believed to be emeralds of extraordinary size and 
were once valued at #15,000,000, although they 
are really worth barely #100,000; some of them 
are more than an inch in diameter. Whence they 
came is uncertain, but it is probable that they 
were brought from the East at some time during 
the Crusades. Indeed the origin of the fine 
peridots of the Middle Ages is shrouded in mys- 
tery; they are, however, believed to have been 
found in one or more of the islands in the Red 
Sea. In our day a number of specimens have 
been discovered on the small island of St. John in 
that sea; the deposit here is a jealously-guarded 
monopoly of the Egyptian Government. Peri- 
dots have also been found at Spyrget Island, in 
the Arabian Gulf. The most remarkable source 
of gem-material of this stone is meteoric, a few 
gems weighing as much as a carat each having 
been cut out of some yellowish-green peridot 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

obtained by the writer from the meteoric iron of 
Glorieta Mountain, New Mexico. 

That a turquoise, presumably set in a ring, 
was given to Shylock by Leah before their 
marriage, perhaps at their betrothal, is all that 
Shakespeare has found occasion to write of this 
pretty stone, one of the earliest used for adorn- 
ment in the world's history, as the great mines of 
Nishapur, in Persia, and those of the Sinai 
Peninsula were worked at a very early time, the 
latter by the Egyptians as far back as 4000 B.C. 
With the opal, the poet has seized upon its most 
characteristic quality, its changeableness of hue, 
where he says in Twelfth Night (Act ii, sc. 4): 
"Thy mind is a very opal." 

A luminous ring is poetically described in one 
of Shakespeare's earliest plays, Titus Andron- 
icus, written in or about 1590. The lines refer- 
ring to the ring are highly expressive. After the 
murder of Bassianus, Martius searches in the 
depths of a dark pit for the dead body, and sud- 
denly cries out to his companion Quintus that he 
has discovered the bloody corpse. As the interior 
of the pit is pitch dark, Quintus can scarcely be- 
lieve what he hears, and he asks Martius how the 
latter could possibly see what he has described. 
The answer is given in the following lines: 

23 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Upon his bloody finger he doth wear 

A precious ring, that lightens all the hole, 

Which, like a taper in some monument, 

Doth shine upon the dead man's earthy cheeks, 

And shows the ragged entrails of the pit. 

Titus Andronicus, Act ii, sc. 3. 
First Folio, "Tragedies," p. 38, col. B, lines 53-57. 

This certainly was suggested by the common 
belief in naturally luminous stones, a belief partly 
due to a superstitious explanation of the ruddy 
brilliancy of rubies and garnets as resulting from 
a hidden fire in the stone, and partly, perhaps, to 
the occasional observation of the phenomena of 
phosphorescence or fluorescence in certain pre- 
cious stones. 

It will have been seen that the text of Shake- 
speare's plays gives no evidence tending to show 
any greater familiarity with precious stones than 
could be gathered from the poetry of his day, 
and from his intercourse with classical scholars, 
such as Francis Bacon, Ben Jonson, and others 
of those who formed the unique assemblage wont 
to meet together at the old Mermaid Tavern in 
London. That a diamond could cost 2000 ducats 
(#5000), a very large sum in Shakespeare's 
time, is noted in one of his earliest plays, the 
Merchant of Venice (Act iii, sc. 1), and the 
following injunction emphasizes the great value 
of a fine diamond: 

24 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Set this diamond safe 
In golden palaces, as it becomes. 

/ Henry FI, Act v, sc.3. 
"Histories," p. 116, col. B, line 54. 

In Pericles we read (Act iii, sc. 2) : 

The diamonds of a most praised water 
Do appear, to make the world twice rich. 
Third Folio, 1664, p. 7, col. B, line 38; 

separate pagination. 

In Shakespeare's time but few of the world's 
great diamonds were in Europe, though two, at 
least, were in his native country. All of them 
must have been of East Indian origin, as this 
was before the discovery of the Brazilian mines 
(1728). In 1547, Henry VIII of England bought 
of the Fuggers of Augsburg — the great money- 
lending bankers and jewel setters, or royal 
pawnbrokers, who generally sold or forced some 
jewels upon those who obtained a loan — the 
jewel of Charles the Bold, called the "Three 
Brethren," from three large balas-rubies with 
which it was set; the central ornament was a 
"great pointed diamond"; of its weight nothing 
is known. This jewel was lost by Duke Charles 
on the field of Granson, March 2, 1476, where it 
was secured by the Swiss victors; it was event- 
ually bought by the Fuggers. The other fine 
English diamond was that known as the Sancy, 

25 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

weighing 53^4 carats (55.23 metric carats), ac- 
quired by James I from Nicholas Harley de 
Sancy, in 1604, for 500,000 crowns. This is also 
stated to have belonged to Charles the Bold. 
In 1657 it was redeemed by Cardinal Mazarin, 
after having been pledged for a loan by Queen 
Henrietta Maria, and at Mazarin's death, in 
1661, was bequeathed, with his other diamonds, 
to the French Crown. After passing through 
many vicissitudes, it has recently come into the 
possession of Baron Astor of Hever (William 
Waldorf Astor). 

There is a possibility that the Florentine dia- 
mond of 133ft carats (137.27 metric carats) 
was already owned by the grand-ducal house of 
Tuscany before Shakespeare's death, but the 
earliest notice of it appears to be that given by 
Fermental, a French traveller, who saw it in 
Florence in 1630. The other great diamonds of 
former days are of more recent date. The Regent 
of 136% carats (140.64 metric carats), found in 
India about 1700, was acquired by the Duke of 
Orleans in 1717; the Orloff (194^4 old carats = 
199.73 metric carats) was bought by Prince 
Orloff for Catherine II, in 1775, for 1,400,000 
Dutch florins, or about $560,000. The famous 
Koh-i-nur, weighing 186^ carats (191.1 metric 

26 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

carats) in its old cutting, came to Europe, as a 
gift to Queen Victoria from the East India 
Company, only in 1850; although, if it be the 
same as the great diamond taken by Humayun, 
son of Baber, at the battle of Paniput, April 
21, 1526, its history dates back at least to 1304, 
when Sultan Ala-ed-Din took it from the Sultan 
of Malva, whose family had already owned it 
for generations. 

As fresh-colored lips are likened to rubies, so 
it is said of a bright eye, that it "would emulate 
the diamond" {Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 
iii, sc. 3). 

Bright eyes are also compared to rock-crystal, 
and the setting of other gems within a bordering 
of crystals is evidently alluded to in the follow- 
ing lines from Love's Labour's Lost (Act ii, sc. 1): 

Methought all his senses were lock'd in his eyes 
As jewels in crystal. 

First Folio, "Comedies," p. 128, col. A, line 7. 

We have in Richard II (Act i, sc. 1) the terms 
"fair and crystal" applied to a clear sky, and 
in Romeo and Juliet (Act i, sc. 2) the word is 
used to denote superlative excellence, where a 
lady's love is to be weighed against her rival on 
"crystal scales." 

Rock-crystal was much more highly valued in 

27 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

the England of Elizabeth and of James I than 
it is to-day, and was freely used as an adjunct to 
more precious material, and still was employed 
to some extent in the adornment of book-covers, 
although this usage, so common in mediaeval 
times, was fast passing away. 

In Shakespeare's poems, "Venus and Adonis" 
(1593) and "Lucrece" (1594), as well as in his 
"Sonnets" (1609), in the "Lover's Com- 
plaint" and in the almost certainly spurious 
"Passionate Pilgrim," containing two sonnets 
and three poems from Love's Labour's Lost, and 
which has been included in most collections of 
his works, there are perhaps relatively more 
frequent mentions of precious stones than in the 
plays, a few of them being of special interest. 
Where we have twice "ruby lips" (and once 
"coral lips") in the plays, the poems speak 
thrice of "coral lips" or a "coral mouth"; 4 a 
belt has "coral clasps" ("Passionate Pilgrim," 
1. 366). This belt bears also "amber studs," and 
in the "Lover's Complaint," 1. 37, are "favours of 
amber," and also of "crystal, and of beaded jet." 

Coming to the really precious stones, sapphire 
finds a single mention, also in the "Lover's Com- 

4 "Venus and Adonis," 1. 542; "Lucrece," 1. 420; Sonnet 
cxxx, 1. 2. 

28 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

plaint," 1. 215, where it is termed "heaven-hued." 
The same poem says of the diamond that it was 
"beautiful and hard" (1. 211), thus symbolizing 
a heartless beauty. More interesting are the 
following lines regarding the emerald (213, 214): 

The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard 
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend. 

This proves the poet's familiarity with the 
idea that gazing on an emerald benefited weak 
sight, an idea expressed as far back as 300 B.C. by 
Theophrastus, a pupil of Aristotle, and repeated 
by the Roman Pliny in 75 a.d. The "Lover's 
Complaint" furnishes another pretty line (198) 
contrasting the different beauties of rubies and 
pearls: 

Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood. 

In "Venus and Adonis," honey-tongued 
Shakespeare writes of a "ruby-colored portal." 

Pearls are noted six times, usually as similes 
for tears, and tears are likened to "pearls in 
glass" ("Venus and Adonis," 1. 980). A tender 
line is that in the "Passionate Pilgrim" (hardly 
from Shakespeare's hand, however): 

Bright orient pearl, alack, too timely shaded. 

More varied are the allusions to rock-crystal 
or crystal, as the poet calls it. In one place 

29 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

("Venus and Adonis," 1. 491) there are "crystal 
tears," and these form "a crystal tide" that flows 
down the cheeks and drops in the bosom {Idem, 
1« 957)- O n the other hand, the eyes are likened 
to this stone, as in "crystal eyne" ("Venus and 
Adonis," 1. 633), or "crystal eyes" (Sonnet 
xlvi, 1. 6). There are also "crystal favours," 5 a 
"crystal gate," 6 and "crystal walls," 7 the two 
characteristics of brilliancy and transparency 
suggesting these uses of the term. 

The emeralds of Shakespeare's age had been 
brought from Peru by the Spaniards and had 
originally come from Colombian mines, such as 
those at Muzo, which are still worked in our day. 
The location of some of the early deposits here 
appears to have been lost sight of since the 
Spanish Conquest. The emeralds of Greek and 
Roman times, and of the Middle Ages, came 
from Mount Zabara (Gebel Zabara), near the 
Red Sea coast, east of Assuan, where traces of 
the old workings were found in 18 17; these 
mines were reopened by order of Mehemet Ali, 
and were worked for a brief period by Mons. 
F. Cailliaud. 

5 "Lover's Complaint," 1. 37. 

6 "Idem," I.286. 
7 "Lucrece," 1. 1251. 

30 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

There can be no doubt that Shakespeare must 
have seen many fine jewels and glittering gems 
in pageants and processions during his residence 
in London. On certain special occasions the 
players were summoned to assist at royal func- 
tions, provision being made by the royal treasury 
for rich materials to be used in making special 
doublets and mantles for wear on these occasions. 
It has been suggested that the rich jewelling of 
many of the court portraits by Holbein and 
others must have impressed the poet by their 
wealth of color spread before his eyes; but it is 
nowise sure that he ever had special opportunity 
to closely examine such portraits, the smaller 
details of which may not have interested him 
greatly. 

While it is not unlikely that some of the royal 
or noble ladies who attended the performances 
of Shakespeare's plays, while he was connected 
with the Globe Theatre, wore brilliant jewels, 
it is improbable that they were bedecked with 
the most valuable of their gems. The danger of 
being waylaid and robbed was much greater in 
those days than it is to-day, and it was probably 
only within palace or castle doors, or at some 
great State function, that the costliest jewels were 
worn. Hence nothing distantly approaching the 

31 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

rather excessive splendor of a New York or 
London opera night could ever have dazzled the 
poet-actor's eyes. 

In the case of plays acted before the court, 
however, the royal and noble ladies, undoubtedly, 
wore many of their finest jewels, as did also the 
sovereign and courtiers. Still, preoccupied as 
Shakespeare must have been with the presenta- 
tion, or representation of the dramatic perform- 
ance, he probably had little time or inclination 
to devote especial attention to these jewels. 

No museum collections, properly so called, 
existed in Shakespeare's day, from which he 
could have acquired any closer knowledge of 
precious stones or gems, although the conception 
of a great modern museum of art and science 
found expression in the "New Atlantis." of his 
great contemporary, Lord Bacon. The modest 
beginnings of the Royal Society of London, 
founded in 1662, cannot be traced back beyond 
1645. The French Academy of Sciences, founded 
in 1666, was preceded by earlier informal meet- 
ings of French scientists, to which allusion is even 
made by Lord Bacon, who died in 1626. The 
Berlin Academy came much later, in 1700, and 
the St. Petersburg Academy was first established 
in 1725 by Catherine I, widow of Peter the 

32 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Great. One society, the Academia Secretorum 
Naturae of Naples, goes back to 1560, and the 
Accademia dei Lincei of Prince Federico Cesi 
was founded at Rome in 1603. But of these 
Shakespeare could have known little or nothing. 

That the poet knew, more or less vaguely, of 
America as a source of precious stones, as were 
the Indies, comes out in the farcical lines from 
The Comedy of Errors (Act iii, sc. 2), when one of 
the Dromios, in locating the various lands of the 
world on parts of his mistress's body, to the query 
of Antipholus: "Where America, the Indies?" 
replies: "Oh, sir, upon her nose, all o'er embel- 
lished with rubies, carbuncles, sapphires." This 
is the only mention of America in the plays. 

A coincidence having its own significance is 
that April 23, the day of Shakespeare's death 
and also his birthday, was the day dedicated to 
St. George, the patron saint of Merry England. 
The war-cry of England is given several times 
by Shakespeare, as, for example: 

Cry, God for Harry, England and Saint George! 

Henry V, Act iii, sc. I. 
First Folio, "Histories," p. 77, col. B, line 51. 
God and Saint George! Richmond and Victory! 

Richard III, Act v, sc. 3. 
First Folio, "Histories," p. 203, col. A, line 31. 
3 33 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

And in / Henry VI (Act i, sc. i) we read: 

Bonfires in France forthwith I am to make, 
To keep our great Saint George's feast withal. 

First Folio, "Histories," p. 97, col. B, line 97. 

We find no trace in Shakespeare's works of 
any belief in the many quaint and curious super- 
stitions current in his day regarding the talis- 
manic or curative virtues of precious stones. 
This is quite in keeping with the thoroughly sane 
outlook upon life that constituted the strong 
foundation of his incomparable mind. Not but 
that, like every true poet, the sense of mystery, 
and even the vague impression of the existence 
of occult powers, of the "Unknowable" in 
Nature, was strongly developed, but this is al- 
ways in a broad and earnest spirit, far removed 
from all petty superstition. 

Margaret of Anjou, wife of Henry VI, sacri- 
ficed her heart and diamond jewel, as a symbol 
of her sorrow and her love, when a tempest beat 
back the ship that was bearing her from the 
continent to the English coast. Her act, as 
described in the following verses, seems almost 
an attempt to propitiate the storm (77 Henry 
VI, Act iii, sc. 2) : 

When from thy shore the tempest beat us back, 
I stood upon the hatches in the storm, 

34 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

And when the dusky sky began to rob 

My earnest-gaping sight of thy land's view, 

I took a costly jewel from my neck, 

A heart it was, bound in with diamonds, 

And threw it towards thy land: the sea received it, 

And so I wish'd thy body might my heart. 

First Folio, "Histories," p. 134, col. A, lines 41-48. 

The idea of the sacredness of a ring as a love- 
token is voiced by Portia in Shakespeare's 
Merchant of Venice where she says (Act v, sc. 1) : 

I gave my love a ring and made him swear 
Never to part with it; and here he stands; 
I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it 
Nor pluck it from his finger, for the wealth 
That the world masters. 
First Folio, "Comedies," p. 183, col. B, lines 12-16. 

The nearest approach to a sentimental char- 
acterization of precious stones is to be found 
in "A Lover's Complaint," lines 204-217. 
Although we have already noted most of them 
separately, it may be well to give the entire 
passage here consecutively: 

And, lo, behold these talents of their hair, 
With twisted metal amorously impleach'd, 
I have received from many a several fair, 
Their kind acceptance weepingly beseech'd 
With the annexions of fair gems enrich'd, 
And deep-brain'd sonnets that did amplify 
Each stone's dear nature, worth, and quality. 

35 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

The diamond, — why, 'twas beautiful and hard, 
Whereto his invised 8 properties did tend; 
The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard 
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend; 
The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend 
With objects manifold: each several stone, 
With wit well blazon'd, smiled or made some moan. 

Had Shakespeare felt much interest in the 
lore of gems, he had before him most of the then 
available material in a book of which he seems 
to have made some use. 9 This was an English 
rendering of the "De Proprietatibus Rerum" 
of Bartholomseus Anglicus (fl. ca. 1350), by 
Stephan Batman, or Bateman (d. 1587), an 
English divine and poet, who in the later years 
of his life was chaplain and librarian to the 
famous Archbishop Parker, and thus had free 
access to the latter's fine library. His rendering, 
published in 1582, bears the following quaint 
title: "Batman uppon Bartholome his Book 
De Proprietatibus Rerum"; it was published in 
1582, and appears to have been widely read in 

8 Rare word, only known in this passage. Century 
Dictionary gives "invisible," "unseen," "uninspected," 
noting that some commentators suggest "inspected," 
"tried," "investigated." 

9 See H. R. D. Anders, "Shakespeare's Books," Berlin, 
1904, pp. 238-248, and the New Shakespeare Soc. Trans., 
1877-79, PP- 436 sqq. 

36 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

England among those still interested in the 
learning of the scholastic period. A much earlier 
English version, made by John of Trevisa in 
1396, was published by Wynkyn de Worde in 
1495, and is considered to be the finest produc- 
tion of his press. 10 

A rarely noted source for some of Shake- 
speare's knowledge regarding curious customs has 
been sought in the rambling treatise on heraldry 
written by Gerard Legh and issued, in 1564, 
under the title: "Accedens of Armorie" (ap- 
proximately, Introduction to Heraldry). This 
is cast in the form of a dialogue between Gerard 
the Herehaught (Herold) and the Caligat Knight, 
the latter term designating an inferior kind of 
knight with no claim to nobility; indeed, an old 
writer renders it "a souldior on foot." The 
writer manages to weave in much material 
slightly or not at all connected with his main 
theme. Legh was the son of a Fleet Street 
draper. He seems to have studied a variety of 
subjects and gathered together many scraps of 
curious information. He died of the plague, 
October 13, 1563. His book went through sev- 



10 ■ 



3 In the author's library is a fourteenth century MS. of 
the "De Proprietatibus Rerum," which belonged to the 
Carthusian Monastery of the Holy Trinity, at Dijon. 

37 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

eral editions during Shakespeare's lifetime. Fol- 
lowing the first edition of 1562 came successive 
ones in 1576, 1591, 1597, and one bearing the 
imprint of J. Jaggard in 1616. The author is 
believed to have been intentionally obscure in 
his treatment of heraldic questions lest he might 
earn the ill-will of the College of Arms by violat- 
ing certain of their privileges. 

While both Shakespeare and his great con- 
temporary Cervantes died on April 23 of the 
year 1616, it strangely happens that Cervantes 
had been dead ten days when Shakespeare 
expired. This apparent paradox is due to the 
fact that while in Spain the Gregorian calendar 
had already been introduced, the "Old Style," 
or Julian reckoning, was still used in England; 
indeed, it was not totally abandoned until 1752, 
in the reign of George II, 170 years after the 
first use of the Gregorian reckoning on the Con- 
tinent. In the seventeenth century the error to 
be corrected amounted to ten days, so that 
Shakespeare's death, under the New Style, 
occurred on May 3, while Cervantes died on 
April 13 of the Old Style. 

In commemoration of the Tercentenary of 
Shakespeare's death, the Shakespearean scholar, 
Miss H. C. Bartlett, prepared for the New York 

38 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Public Library an exhibition of Shakespearean 
books; including all the early editions of the quar- 
tos; the various editions of the folios; the works 
of contemporaneous authors whom Shakespeare 
had consulted ; and also the early works that men- 
tion Shakespeare, or cite from his plays or poems, 
including Greene's "Groat's Worth of Wit," 
published in 1592 by Henry Chettle and con- 
taining the earliest printed allusion to Shake- 
speare under the name of "Shake-scene." 

One of the contemporary books containing 
citations from Shakespeare's works, shown at 
the New York Public Library, is "The Woman 
Hater," by Francis Beaumont (?I585— 1615 or 
1 61 6), printed in 1607. 11 The citation, from 
Hamlet, Act i, sc. 5, 12 is apropos of the disap- 
pearance of a "fish head." It is put into the 
mouths of two of the characters, as follows: 

Lazarello. Speak, I am bound to hear. 

Count. So art thou to revenge when thou shalt hear. 

In the spacious hall of the beautiful Hispanic 
Museum in New York City there has recently 
been displayed, in commemoration of the ter- 

11 "The Woman Hater, as it hath beene lately acted by 
the children of Paules, London, printed and to be sold by 
John Hodgers in Paules Church-yard, 1607." 

12 First Folio, p. 257, col. B, lines 15, 16. 

39 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

centenary of Cervantes's death, an exceptionally 
fine collection of editions of his works and of 
rare plates illustrating episodes from them. 
Notable among the books was a first edition of 
his earliest published poems, four redondillas, a 
copla and an elegy, on the death, October 3, 1568, 
of Elizabeth de Valois, third wife of Philip II, and 
sister of Charles IX of France. 13 Dark rumors 
were afloat for some time that she had been poi- 
soned by order of her husband. Among the other 
treasures in the Hispanic Museum exhibition 
was the earliest imprint of Cervantes's master- 
piece, the immortal "Don Quixote." This was 
printed in Madrid, in 1605, by Juan de la Cuesta. 
A rather attractive bit of verse, purporting 
to have been written by Shakespeare and dedi- 
cated to the woman who became his wife in 1582, 
when he was but eighteen years old (she was 
eight years his senior), alludes in its third stanza 

13 The compilation containing these poems is entitled: 
"Hystoria y relacio verdadera de la enfermedad felicissimo 
transito y sumptuosas exequias funebres de laSerenissima 
Reyna de Espana Isabel de Valoys nuestra Senora," 
Madrid, 1569. The opening lines of Cervantes are: 

A quien yra mi doloroso canto 
O en cuya oreja sonara su acento? 
(To whom will my sad song go, and in 
whose ears will its accents sound?) 
40 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

:o "the orient list" of gems, diamond, topaz, 
amethyst, emerald, and ruby. This little poem, 
with its play upon the lady-love's name, can find 
a place here, although many readers are already 
familiar with it. 

To the Idol of Mine Eyes and the Delight of Mine 

Heart, 

anne hathaway. 

Would ye be taught, ye feathered throng, 
With love's sweet notes to grace your song, 
To pierce the heart with thrilling lay, 
Listen to mine Anne Hathaway! 
She hath a way to sing so clear, 
Phoebus might wond'ring stop to hear; 
To melt the sad, make blithe the gay, 
And nature charm, Anne hath a way: 

She hath a way, 

Anne Hathaway, 
To breathe delight Anne hath a way. 

When envy's breath and rancorous tooth 

Do soil and bite fair worth and truth, 

And merit to distress betray, 

To soothe the heart Anne hath a way; 

She hath a way to chase despair, 

To heal all grief, to cure all care, 

Turn foulest night to fairest day: 

Thou know'st, fond heart, Anne hath a way, 

She hath a way, 

Anne Hathaway, 
To make grief bliss Anne hath a way. 
41 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Talk not of gems, the orient list, 
The diamond, topaz, amethyst, 
The emerald mild, the ruby gay; 
Talk of my gem, Anne Hathaway! 
She hath a way, with her bright eye, 
Their various lustre to defy, 
The jewel she and the foil they, 
So sweet to look Anne hath a way. 

She hath a way, 

Anne Hathaway, 
To make grief bliss Anne hath a way. 

But were it to my fancy given 

To rate her charms, I'd call them Heaven; 

For though a mortal made of clay, 

Angels must love Anne Hathaway. 

She hath a way so to control 

To rupture the imprisoned soul, 

And sweetest Heaven on earth display, 

That to be Heaven Anne hath a way! 

She hath a way, 

Anne Hathaway, 
To be Heaven's self Anne hath a way. 

This little poem is by Charles Dibdin (1748- 
1814), the writer of about 1200 sea-songs, at one 
time great favorites with sailors. It appeared, 
in 1792, in his long-forgotten novel, "Hannah 
Hewit, or the Female Crusoe," and Sir Sidney 
Lee conjectures that it may have been composed 
on the occasion of the Stratford jubilee of 1769, 
in the organization of which Dibdin aided the 
great actor, David Garrick. In the "Poems of 

42 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Places," New York, 1877, edited by Henry W. 
Longfellow, this poem is assigned to Shakespeare 
on the strength of a persistent popular error. 14 In 
his " Life" Dibdin says : " My songs have been the 
solace of sailors in their long voyages, in storms, 
in battle; and they have been quoted in mutinies 
to the restoration of order and discipline." It 
has been asserted that they brought more men 
into the navy than all the press gangs could do. 
The poem has sometimes been attributed to 
Edmund Falconer (18 14-1879), an actor and 
dramatist, born in Dublin, and whose real name 
was Edmund O'Rourke. However, his poem 
entitled " Anne Hathaway, A Traditionary Ballad 
sung to a Day Dreamer by the Mummers of Shot- 
tery Brook," 15 falls far below the lines we have 
quoted in poetic quality, as may be seen from the 
opening stanza (the best), which runs as follows: 

No beard on thy chin, but a fire in thine eye, 
With lustiest Manhood's in passion to vie, 
A stripling in form, with a tongue that can make 
The oldest folks listen, maids sweethearts forsake, 
Hie over the fields at the first blush of May, 
And give thy boy's heart unto Anne Hathaway. 

14 Sir Sidney Lee, "A Life of Shakespeare," new edition, 
London, 1915, p. 26, note. 

15 Edmund Falconer, "Memories, the Bequest of my 
Boyhood," London, 1863, pp. 14-22. 

43 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

In none of the allusions to precious stones 
made by Shakespeare is there any indication 
that he had in mind any of the Biblical passages 
treating of gems. The most notable of these are 
the enumeration of the twelve stones in Aaron's 
breast-plate (Exodus xxviii, 17-20; xxxix, 10-13), 
the list of the foundation stones and gates of the 
New Jerusalem given by John in Revelation 
(xxi, 19-21), and the description of the Tyrian 
king's "covering" in Ezekiel (xxviii, 130). Had 
the poet given any particular attention to these 
texts we could scarcely fail to note the fact. 
Other Bible mentions, such as those elsewhere 
made by Ezekiel (xxvii, 16, 22), regarding the 
trade of Tyre, the agates (and coral) from Syria, 
and the precious stones brought by the Arabian 
or Syrian merchants of Sheba and Raamah, are 
too much generalized to invite any special notice. 
The same may be said of most of the remaining 
brief allusions. We might rather expect that 
where the color or brilliancy of a precious stone 
is used as a simile this might strike a poet's 
fancy and perhaps find direct expression in his 
own words. The' light of the New Jerusalem is 
likened to "a jasper stone, clear as crystal" 
(Rev. xxi, 11), and in Exodus (xxiv, 10) the 
sapphire stone is said to be "as it were the body 

44 



FIVE OF THE SIX AUTHENTIC SHAKESPEARE SIGNATURES 
• « /»»,><? \. ",, = ., H.V.r , L >s . -.rif.ji „,,>- iU r&*,i. 








I. Signature on the purchase deed of Shakespeare's house in Blackfriars, dated 
March 10, 1613. In the Guildhall, London 




j&i ^r fa^U*** &fi<^V** r 



/ 



) **e« 



&~»~ ' „.C* j^gX 'O^au-^S j2tyto— 



^r»* 



/• 



/^yZn *&* 



r^^^im 









£v~> 



j 



2, 3, 4. Signatures on the three pages of Shakespeare's will executed March 
25, 1616. Original in Somerset House, London 






*i* •iT"^* *«-«.^# 



c/ 



* * 







S. Signature attached to the deed mortgaging the house in Blackfriars, dated 
March ii, 1613. In the British Museum 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

of heaven in its clearness." However, that 
Shakespeare wrote of "the heaven-hued sap- 
phire" ("Lover's Complaint," 1. 215) has no 
necessary connection with this, as the celestial 
hue of the beautiful sapphire is spoken of time 
and again by many of the older writers. 

It should be borne in mind that the great 
English transla ion of the Bible, popularly called 
"King James' Bible," was published only after 
Shakespeare had completed his last play in 161 1. 
Before that time, dating from Tyndale's version 
of 1525, and in great measure based on it, a 
number of English translations had appeared, 
the most authoritative in Shakspeare's time 
being perhaps the "Bishops' Bible," printed 
under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth in 1568, 
and edited by the Archbishop of Canterbury. 
The Geneva Bible of 1560, the first entire 
Bible in English in which the division into chap- 
ters and verses was carried out, had, however, 
the widest dissemination in Shakespeare's time, 
and a careful study of passages in his works 
referable to Biblical texts appears to prove that 
this version was the one with which he was most 
familiar. His plays testify to his close knowl- 
edge of the Scriptures, although no writer is less 
fettered by purely doctrinal considerations. The 

45 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Geneva Bible went through no less than sixty 
editions in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and even 
after the issue of the "Authorized Version" in 
1611 it competed successfully with this for a 
time. 

That Shakespeare may have seen Philemon 
Holland's (15 52-1637) excellent translation of 
Pliny is nowise unlikely. A notable passage in 
his Othello seems in any case to indicate that it 
was suggested by Pliny's words (Bk. II, chap. 97, 
in Holland's version) : 

And the sea Pontus evermore floweth and runneth out 
into Propontic, but the sea never retireth backe againe 
within Pontus. 

Othello replies thus to Iago's conjecture that 
he may change his mind (Act iii, sc. 3) : 

Never, Iago. Like to the Pontic sea, 
Whose icy current and compulsive course 
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on 
To the Propontic and the Hellespont, 
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace, 
Shall ne'er look back, ne'er ebb to humble love. 
First Folio, "Tragedies," p. 326, col. B, lines 34-39. 

There is, however, no trace of any familiarity 

on Shakespeare's part with the precious stone 

lore of the Roman encyclopaedist, either from 

the Latin text of his great "Historia Naturalis," 

or from the translation published by Holland in 

46 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

1601. This translator, who Englished many 
of the chief Latin and Greek authors, Suetonius, 
Livy, Ammianus Marcellinus, Plutarch's "Mor- 
als" and other works, was pronounced by Fuller, 
in his "Worthies," to be "translator general in 
his age," adding that "these books alone of his 
turning into English will make a country gentle- 
man a competent library." For his Ammianus 
Marcellinus the Council of Coventry, his place of 
residence, paid him £4, and £5 for a translation 
of Camden's "Britannia" — small sums, indeed, 
for so much labor, but not so unreasonable when 
we think that a half-century later the immortal 
Milton got but £5 for his "Paradise Lost." 
He was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
where he had studied and graduated; later he 
studied medicine, receiving a degree of M.D., 
not from Oxford or Cambridge, however, but 
either from a Scottish or foreign university. 

Although Solinus, writing in the third cen- 
tury a.d., relies mainly upon Pliny for his in- 
formation on precious stones, still he here and 
there gives evidence of a more critical spirit, 
as when he says of the rock-crystal that the 
theory according to which it was frozen and 
hardened water was necessarily incorrect, for 
it was to be found in such mild climates as 

47 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

"Alabanda in Asia and the island of Cyprus." 16 
This is the more notable that the wholly incor- 
rect view persisted into the sixteenth century, so 
learned a writer as Lord Bacon (d. 1626) restat- 
ing it in his last work, "Sylva Sylvarum." 

One of the most curious gem-treatises, espe- 
cially as a source of early sixteenth-century beliefs 
in the magic properties of precious stones, the 
"Speculum Lapidum" of Camillo Leonardo, 
published in Venice, 1502, probably never came 
under Shakespeare's eye. Indeed, even in Italy 
it seems to have been so neglected that Ludovico 
Dolci ventured to publish a literal Italian version 
of the Latin original as his own work in 1565. 
The English "Mirror of Stones," issued in 1750, 
is frankly stated to be a translation of the Latin 
original bearing the same name. 17 

In Marlowe's (1 564-1 593) "Hero and Leander," 
almost certainly written before Shakespeare's 
"Venus and Adonis" (1593), although not pub- 
lished until 1598, five years after Marlowe's 
death, "pearl tears" and the "sparkling dia- 
mond" are used much in the same way as by 
Shakespeare, as appears in the following verses: 

16 Collectanea rerum memorabilium, Cap. 15. 

17 Noted in the present writer's "The Curious Lore of 
Precious Stones," Philadelphia and London, 1913, p. 18. 

48 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Forth from those two translucent cisterns brake 
A stream of liquid pearl, which down her face 
Made milk-white paths. Lines 296-298. 

Why should you worship her! her you surpass 
As much as sparkling diamonds flaring glass. 

Lines 213, 214. 

There is a curious parallelism between a pas- 
sage in Troilus and Cressida, 1609, and one in 
Marlowe's Dr. Faustus, 1588. Marlowe wrote 
(sc. 14, 1. 83): 

Was this the face that launched a thousand ships 
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? 

This is followed very closely by Shakespeare, 
with the substitution of "pearl" for "face." 

She [Helen] is a pearl, 

Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act ii, sc. 2, 1. 82. 

First Folio, at end of "Histories," unnumbered page 

(596 of facsimile), col. A, line 19. 

The greatest of the world's poets lived in a 
period midway between the highest development 
of Renaissance civilization and the foundation of 
our modern civilization, and he was thus at once 
heir to the rich treasures of a glorious past, and en- 
dowed with a poetic, or we might say a prophetic 
insight that makes his works appeal as closely to 
the readers of to-day as to those of his own time. 
4 49 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

In the four leading European nations of the 
age — Italy, despite her high rank in art, still 
lacked national unity — four sovereigns of marked 
though widely diverse character and attain- 
ments reigned for a considerable part of Shake- 
speare's life. Of the " Virgin Queen " we scarcely 
need to write. The England of her day, and of 
later days, would not have been what it was and 
what it became, without the aid of her mingled 
shrewdness and prudence. Faults she had and 
shortcomings, but, granted the almost overpow- 
ering difficulties she had to face, both at home 
and abroad, it is doubtful whether a more de- 
cided, a more straight-forward policy would have 
been as successful as the somewhat devious one 
she pursued. Her chief rival, Philip II (1556- 
1598), as much averse as Elizabeth herself to 
energetic action, even more fond of procrastina- 
tion, lacked her relative religious and political 
tolerance, and left Spain weaker than he had 
found it. And still his tenacity, his devotion to 
the cause he believed to be that of heaven, his 
consistency, and even the gloomy seriousness of 
his life, testify to a strong soul, though a thor- 
oughly unlovable one. 

The reign of the eccentric Rudolph II, Em- 
peror of Germany (1 576-161 2), whose imperial 

50 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

residence was at Prague, covers the greater part 
of Shakespeare's life. In spite of many failings 
and mistakes, this monarch did much to foster 
the study of the arts and sciences of his age, so 
far as he was able to understand them. That 
he was for a time the dupe of adventurers and 
alchemists, such as the half-visionary John Dee 
and the altogether unscrupulous Edward Kelley, 
was no unusual experience in those days, when 
the dividing line between true science and char- 
latanism was too indistinctly marked to be 
easily discernible. 

The greatest of all the sovereigns of Shake-* 
speare's time was Henry IV of France, unques- 
tionably the greatest of French kings, despite 
the fact that the primacy has often been accorded 
to the Roi Soleil, Louis XIV. The powerful and 
ductile personality that was able to put an end 
to the destructive religious wars of France and 
to lay a firm foundation for the strongly-central- 
ized power of a later time, a foundation which 
the great statesman Richelieu broadened and 
deepened, deserves all the credit that should be 
given to those who conquer the first apparently 
insurmountable difficulties in the realization of 
a great aim. 

How brief was the reign of most of the popes 

51 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

of this time is shown by the fact that no less 
than ten of them were at one time or other 
Shakespeare's contemporaries, although the 
duration of his life was but fifty-two years. Of 
these probably the most noteworthy was Greg- 
ory XIII (i 572-1 585), in whose reign occurred 
the fearful Massacre of St. Bartholomew, August 
24, 1572, and the reform of the calendar from 
that known as the Julian to the new style named 
the Gregorian Calendar in honor of this pope. 

In the East, just coming into closer commer- 
cial intercourse with Europe, the long reign of 
the greatest of the Mogul emperors, Jelal-ed-din 
Akbar (1 556-1605), began two years before the 
accession of Elizabeth and lasted two years after 
her death. Probably no Oriental sovereign, cer- 
tainly no Indian sovereign, ranks higher than 
Akbar, who was at once a great statesman, an 
able organizer, and singularly tolerant in relig- 
ion. In Persia, one of the most marked rulers 
of this land, Abbas the Great, began to reign 
in 1584 and died in 1628. 

In no period was jewelry worn more ornately, 
or with greater display, we might almost say 
ostentation, than in the age of Shakespeare. As 
a rule, in this period the precious stones were 
less considered than the elaborate goldsmith 

52 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

work in which they were placed. They were 
the adjuncts, rather than the principal glory of 
the jewel. 

The court jeweller of James VI of Scotland 
and of this monarch after his accession to the 
English throne, as James I, was George Heriot 
(ca. 1 563-1624), born in Edinburgh, the son 
of a member of the company of goldsmiths 
in that city. As the Scotch goldsmiths cumu- 
lated the profession of money-lending with that 
of goldsmithing, they were usually persons of 
considerable account among the citizens. Heriot 
became a member of the company in 1588, the 
year of the Spanish Armada. Despite the rather 
straitened circumstances of the Scottish court, 
considerable amounts were expended for jewels, 
especially as the queen, Anne of Denmark, was 
very fond of display. The nobility also, such 
of them at least as possessed the means, were 
inclined to deck themselves out with brilliant 
jewels and splendid ornaments of massive gold. 
Heriot's appointment as goldsmith to the queen 
dates from 1597; soon after this he was made 
jeweller and goldsmith to the king. He followed 
the court to London in 1603, when King James 
succeeded to Elizabeth, and at the time of his 
death, February 12, 1624, had amassed the 

53 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

sum of £50,000 by his profitable connection with 
the court, and had also acquired lands and houses 
at Rochampton, in Surrey, and St. Martin's-in- 
the-Fields, London. His residuary estate, which 
amounted to £23,625 ($118,125), he entrusted to 
the provosts, bailiffs, ministers, and ordinary 
town-council of Edinburgh for the erection of 
an institution to be called Heriot's Hospital, 
where a number of poor freemen's sons of the 
town should be educated. 18 This foundation still 
exists, and the excellent management of those 
who have had to do with the endowment is 
shown by the fact that the income it now pro- 
duces equals the whole sum of the original 
bequest. 

This great Scotch goldsmith fashioned a num- 
ber of splendid rings for the queen. An old 
account furnished by Heriot lists them as 
follows : 19 

A ring with a heart and serpent, all set about 
with diamonds; 

A ring with a single diamond, set in a heart 
betwixt two hands; 

18 William Hone, " The Every-Day Book," London, 1 83 8, 
vol. ii, cols. 748, 749. 

19 William Hone, "Every-Day Book," London, 1838, 
vol. ii, cols. 749, 750. 

54 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

A great ring in the form of a perssed hand and 
a perssed eye, all sett with diamonds; 

One great ring, in forme of a frog, all set with 
diamonds, price two-hundreth poundis; 

A ring of a burning heart set with diamondis; 

A ring in the forme af a scallope shell, set 
with a table diamond, and opening on the head; 

A ring of a love trophe set with diamondis; 

Two rings, lyke black flowers, with a table 
diamond in each; 

A daissie ring sett with a table diamond; 

A ryng sett all over with diamondis, made in 
fashion of a lizard, 120 1.; 

A ring set with 9 diamonds, and opening on 
the head with the King's picture in that. 

Heriot also lists a ring delivered about 1607 
to Margaret Hartsyde, one of the royal house- 
hold, describing it as "sett all about with dia- 
mondis, and a table diamond on the head"; 
that is, in the bezel. He states that he had been 
given to understand that this was by direction 
of Her Majesty. His precaution in making this 
note appears to have been fully justified, for 
this Margaret Hartsyde was tried in Edinburgh, 
May 31, 1608, on the charge of having pur- 
loined a pearl belonging to the queen and valued 
at £110. Her excuse was that she had taken 

55 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

this and other pearls to adorn dolls for the amuse- 
ment of the royal children, and that she did not 
expect the queen would ask for them. As, how- 
ever, it was brought out in the trial that she had 
cleverly disguised some of the pearls she had 
taken, and had offered to sell them to the queen, 
she was condemned to imprisonment in Black- 
ness Castle until the payment of a fine of £400, 
and to confinement in Orkney during the re- 
mainder of her life. Eleven years later, however, 
the king's advocate "produced a letter of re- 
habilitation and restitution of Margaret Hart- 
syde to her fame." 20 

In Shakespeare's day the "goldsmiths" were 
also jewellers and gem dealers, and often money- 
lenders as well. The settings of the finest 
precious stones were at that time generally of 
gold, rarely of silver. Platinum, the metal that 
now enjoys the greatest furore for diamond set- 
tings, was then unknown in Europe; it was first 
brought to Europe in 1735, from South America, 
having been found in the alluvial deposits of 
the river Pinto, in the district of Choco, now 
forming part of the United States of Colombia. 
The Spaniards had named it platina, from its 
resemblance to plata, silver. The chief source 

20 "Every-Day Book," loc. cit. 

56 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

in our time is Russia, the richest deposits being 
those discovered in 1825, on the Iss, a tributary 
of the Tura, in the Urals. Other valuable de- 
posits are in the district of Nizhni-Tagilsk. 
Platinum also occurs in Brazil, California, and 
British Columbia, associated with gold, as well 
as in Borneo, New South Wales, Australia, and 
in New Zealand. Its use in gem-mountings 
began about 1870, and from 1880 onward it has 
become more and more favored, until now it 
has almost entirely superseded gold in the finest 
jewelry, especially for diamond settings. Long 
before the metal was known and used in Europe, 
ornamental use of it was made in South America, 
in the district we have mentioned, the material 
not being fused, but simply forged out of the 
nuggets found in the deposits. 

That but few fine diamonds were in Europe 
when Shakespeare wrote has already been noted; 
indeed, the annual importation from India, then 
the only source, can hardly have exceeded 
#100,000 on an average, while at the present 
day the value of the diamonds from the great 
African mines imported into Europe and America 
amounts to from #40,000,000 to #60,000,000 each 
year. 

In King James's reign, besides Heriot, William 

57 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Herrick (brother of Nicolas) and John Spilman 
were appointed jewellers to the king, queen, and 
prince, the annual emoluments being £50 an- 
nually. It is stated that Herrick furnished 
jewels worth £36,000 to Queen Anne of Den- 
mark. Such of her many jewels as were to be 
found when she died are said to have been left 
to her son, later Charles I, and none to her 
daughter Elizabeth, later Queen of Bohemia and 
ancestress of many of the sovereigns of Europe, 
as well as of the present reigning house in 
England. Unfortunately for her heir, a great 
part of the jewels had been embezzled, and 
could not be recovered, although models of 
many had been carefully preserved by William 
Herrick, who swore that the originals had been 
delivered to the queen. Less notable jewellers 
of King James's day were Philip Jacobson, 
Arnold Lulls, John Acton, and John Williams. 
One of them, Arnold Lulls, has left a fine set 
of contemporary drawings representing jewels of 
the epoch; these are now to be seen in the Vic- 
toria and Albert Museum, London. As an in- 
stance of the value of some of the jewels of his 
design, it is recorded that the sum of £1550 was 
paid for a diamond jewel with pearl pendants 
and two dozen buttons, furnished to the king to 

58 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

be bestowed upon the queen at the christening 
of the Princess Mary in 1605. 21 

While the jeweller's art in England was still 
under the influence of foreign goldsmiths in 
Elizabeth's time, it had to a considerable extent 
emancipated itself from foreign control in the lat- 
ter part of her reign and in that of her successor. 
In addition to George Heriot, whom we have just 
noticed, several others are well worthy of men- 
tion, such as Dericke Anthony, AfTabel Partridge, 
Peter Trender, and Nicolas Herrick, 22 the father 
of the poet Robert Herrick, who makes many 
a telling use of the colors and charm of precious 
stones and pearls in his dainty poems. To these 
must be added Sir John Spilman,of German birth, 
who made many jewels at the royal command. 

We should remember that for the cutting of 
precious stones steam-power was not then avail- 
able, "man-power" being employed. A large 
turning wheel was pushed around by a man 
holding a bar extending from it. The motion of 
this large wheel was transmitted to other smaller 
ones. The number of revolutions per minute 
hardly exceeded a few hundred, while in modern 

21 H. Clifford Smith, "Jewellery," London, 1908 , p. 302. 
22 H. Clifford Smith, "Jewellery," London, 1908, pp. 
219, 220, 301. 

59 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

times a speed of from 2000 to 2500 revolutions per 
minute is attained. The diamond cutting indus- 
try was largely in the hands of Jews in Lisbon. 
The gem-cutting processes were not greatly 
modified for many years after Shakespeare's 
death, so that a representation of the wheel and 
mill used in 1750 gives a fairly good general idea 
of the modus operandi. The large wooden wheel, 
whose axis is the second pillar within the frame, 
is bent, and makes an elbow under the wheel to 
receive the impulsion of a bar that serves instead 
of a turn-handle. On the right side of the frame, 
where the boy stands, is the turn-handle which 
sets the wheel in motion by means of the elbow 
of its axis. So that if the wooden wheel be 
twenty times larger than the iron one, a hundred 
turns of the larger wheel will cause a thousand 
revolutions of the smaller one. The method of 
holding the diamond in place over the iron wheel, 
when in motion, so that it presses upon the latter 
and is polished thereby, is shown in the lower 
right-hand corner of the plate. 

The German traveller, Paul Hentzner, who 
visited England in 1598, toward the end of 
Elizabeth's life, describes her jewelling in the 
following words: 

"The Queen had in her ears two pearls with 

60 




FROM A PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH 
In the possession of his Grace the Duke of Devonshire, K.G., Hardwick Hall. The queen has jewels in 
her hair, a pearl eardrop, and two necklaces, one fitting closely to the neck, the other falling over the 
breast. The stiff brocade skirt is embroidered with a wonderful array of aquatic birds and animals. On 
the left, the cushion of the chair of state is embroidered with the queen's monogram. Surmounting 
the chair is a crystal ball. The original canvas measures 90x66 inches 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

very rich drops; she wore false hair and that red; 
upon her head she had a small crown; her bosom 
was uncovered, and she had on a necklace of ex- 
ceedingly fine jewels. She was dressed in white 
silk, bordered with pearls of the size of beans, and 
over it a mantle of black silk shot with silver 
threads; her train was very long. Instead of a 
chain, she had an oblongcollar of gold and jewels.'' 

In addition to this display the traveller tells 
us that the queen's right hand was fairly spark- 
ling with jewelled rings. 

Aside from his portrayal of jewels in his numer- 
ous portraits, Holbein ranked as the master de- 
signer of jewels in his day. Many of the finest 
of these designs have been preserved for us and 
can be seen in the British Museum, to which 
they were bequeathed by Sir Hans Sloane in 
1753. There are 179 separate pieces, usually 
pen-and-ink sketches. The execution of the 
jewels from these designs is believed to have 
been mainly done by Hans of Antwerp, known 
as Hans Anwarpe, a friend of Holbein, who 
settled in London in 1514, and was appointed 
goldsmith to King Henry VIII, for whom he 
produced many jewels for New Year's gifts. 23 

23 H. Clifford Smith, " Jewellery," London [1908], pp. 
211, 213. 

61 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

In judging of the jewels figured in portraits 
we must remember that the artist has often 
modified them to bring them into greater har- 
mony with their immediate surroundings. This, 
in some cases, may lead him to make of a some- 
what inartistically designed jewel a beautifully 
proportioned one. Again, he may be led to 
exaggerate the size of the precious stones or 
pearls, and to intensify or deepen their colors. 
A recent instance regards a portrait of the 
former queen of Spain by one of the foremost 
Spanish artists of our day. The royal lady was 
depicted wearing an enormous pearl; however, 
the artist informed the author that the real 
pearl was much smaller than the painted one, 
but that, in portraying it, a better decorative 
effect was obtained by increasing its size. 
Whether Holbein (1497-1543), with his Dutch 
exactness of portrayal, was led into any similar 
exaggerations we can never tell, as little as we 
can know anything definite regarding the true 
size of the jewels shown in the portraits by the 
Italian Zucchero (1 529-1 566), the Fleming Lucas 
de Heere (1524-1584), or by any other of the 
portrait painters of Elizabeth's time. 

In a very modest way the addition of gilded 
scarf-pins, brooches, chains, etc., not owned by 

62 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

the sitters, was not uncommonly practised thirty 
or forty years ago, when colored tintypes were 
popular. These were painted on the photographs, 
much to the gratification of those who ordered 
them for distribution among their friends. 

The court-jewellers of France in Shakespeare's 
day rivalled, though they did not excel, those of 
England. Among them a prominent place 
belongs to Francois Dujardin (or Desjardin), 
goldsmith of Charles IX (i 560-1 574) and Henri 
III (1 574-1 589). When a verification and an 
inventory of the French Crown Jewels were 
made on August 1, 1574, after the death of 
Charles IX, the expert examination was en- 
trusted to Francois Dujardin, who is termed 
"orfebvre et lapidaire du Roy." The gold- 
smith's art was passed down from father to son 
in this family: a second F. Dujardin (b. ca. 
1565) mounted the parures made for Elizabeth 
of Austria, daughter of Henri IV and Maria de' 
Medici. In the reign of Henri IV and the suc- 
ceeding regency of Maria de' Medici, Josse de 
Langerac, received as master goldsmith in 1594, 
and the brothers Rogier, are noted as leading 
goldsmiths who, besides executing many fine 
jewels, frequently made loans of money to the 
Queen Regent, and seem to have experienced 

63 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

great difficulty in securing full payment. Cor- 
neille Rogier set the jewels worn at her marriage 
by Anne d'Autriche, wife of Louis XIII. Two 
brothers, each bearing the name Pierre Courtois, 
are also noted in old records. One of them, at 
the time of his death, in 1611, occupied two 
apartments with two shops in the Louvre; the 
shop of the other had the sign "Aux Trois Roys," 
probably referring to the "Three Kings of the 
East," the Magi of the Gospel, very appro- 
priate patrons for goldsmiths. 24 

Thierry Badouer, a German goldsmith-jewel- 
ler, received from the French court, in 1572, an 
order for 250,000 crowns' worth of jewels to be 
distributed as gifts at the approaching marriage 
of Henri de Navarre with Marguerite de Valois. 
He faithfully executed his part of the task and 
brought the jewels with him to Paris, but before 
he had been able to deliver them to the Royal 
Treasury they were stolen from him during the 
confusion of the St. Bartholomew Massacre. 
Eventually, in the reign of Henri IV, his widow 
was partly reimbursed for the loss, receiving 
one-quarter of the amount of her claim. 25 After 

2i Germain Bapst, "Histoire des Joyaux de la Couronne 
de France," Paris, 1889, pp. 175, 176, 300, 304. 
25 Op. cit., p. 289. 

64 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, and as a result 
of it, many Protestants and Catholics left France 
for Hanau, Germany, where to this day they 
carry on the jeweller's art; and from this begin- 
ning Hanau became a jeweller's centre. 

The best reproduction of the First Folio of 
1623 is the photographic facsimile, made in 1902, 
of the copy formerly owned by the Duke of 
Devonshire and now in the possession of Henry 
E. Huntington, of New York. 26 The original 
Folio, prepared by the managers of Shakespeare's 
company, John Heminge and Henry Condell, 
bears the imprint of Isaac Jaggard and Edward 
Blount, the printing house being conducted by 
William Jaggard and his son Isaac. It is be- 
lieved that an edition of five hundred copies 
was issued, at one pound per copy. That the 
publication was essentially a commercial ven- 
ture, although it may also have been a labor of 
love for some of the editors, is brought out 
clearly and quaintly in the preface addressed 

26 "Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, 
being a reproduction in facsimile of the First Folio Edition 
of 1623, from the Chatsworth copy in the possession of the 
Duke of Devonshire, K.G., with introduction and censure 
of copies by Sidney Lee." Oxford, Clarendon Press, 
1902, xxxv 908 pp. Edition limited to 1000 numbered 
and signed copies. 

5 65 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

to "The great Variety of Readers," and signed 
by Heminge and Condell. This reads that the 
book was printed at the charges of W. Jaggard, 
Ed. Blount, I. Southweeke, and W. Apsley, 1623. 
The following passage from the preface is well 
worth quoting, its spirit is so delightfully 
modern : 

The fate of all Bookes depends upon your capacities, 
and not of your heads alone, but of your purses. Well! 
It is now publique, & you wil stand for your priviledges, 
wee know: to read, and censure. 27 Do so, but buy it 
first. That doth best commend a Booke the Stationer 
saies. Then, how odde soever your braines be, or your 
wisdomes, make your license the same and spare not . . . 
But whatever you do, Buy. Censure will not drive a 
Trade, nor make the Jacke go. 

The chief credit for bringing together the 
materials for the First Folio, in 1623, is believed 
to be due to William Jaggard. Some ten years 
earlier he had acquired the printing-privileges of 
certain of the quartos. Edward Blount, whose 
name appears as publisher on the title page with 
that of Isaac Jaggard, was merely a stationer, 
so that the actual printing was solely under the 
charge of the latter, who seems, at this time, to 
have been entrusted with this department of 
the business. However, Blount's services may 

"Judge. 

66 



- -»- T> 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

have been valuable since he had better literary 
taste than the Jaggards possessed. 

In spite of certain evident faults of proportion, 
the portrait of Shakespeare engraved by Martin 
Droeshout for the title page of the 1623 Folio 
bears internal evidence of being a fairly good 
likeness, for the face possesses a marked indi- 
viduality. There is a belief that it was taken 
from the so-called "Flower" portrait, now in 
the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at Stratford- 
upon-Avon, and which is conjectured to have 
been painted in 1609, at least during Shake- 
speare's lifetime, possibly by another Martin 
Droeshout, a Fleming, uncle of the engraver of 
the same name. This portrait was discovered, 
painted on a panel at Peckham Rye, bearing the 
inscription "Will Shakespeare 11 , 1609." That it 
should be the original from which the Droeshout 
engraving was taken has been doubted, since it 
appears rather to resemble later states of the 
plate than earlier ones. While Ben Jonson, who 
had seen Shakespeare so often, may have been 
partly moved to bestow undue praise upon the 
Folio portrait, in the lines he furnished the pub- 
lishers to be placed immediately facing it, by 
his wish to say a good word for their publication, 
he would scarcely have made use of such super- 

67 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

lative terms had he not considered it to be at 
least a fairly good likeness. Jonson's lines have 
been so often printed that few are unacquainted 
with them, but as illustrating the above remarks 
they can be repeated here, in the old spelling 
and form of the First Folio: 

To the Reader. 
This Figure, that thou here seest put, 

It was for gentle Shakespeare cut; 
Wherein the Graver has a strife 

With Nature, to out-doo the life: 
O, could he but have drawne his wit 

As well in brasse, as he hath hit 
His face; the Print would then surpasse 

All, that was ever writ in brasse. 
But, since he cannot, Reader, looke 

Not on his Picture, but his Booke. 

B. I. 

A most attractive and instructive exhibition 
of reproductions of the portraits of Shakespeare, 
or supposedly of him, was shown at the rooms 
of the Grolier Club, April 6-29, 191 6. The 
catalogue 28 embraces 436 numbers, illustrating all 
the principal types. The exhibition also com- 

28 Catalogue of an exhibition illustrative of the text of 
Shakespeare's plays, as published in edited editions, 
together with a large collection of engraved portraits of 
the poet. New York, The Grolier Club, April 6-29, 1916, 
vi+114 pp. 

68 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

prised the principal editions of the poet's plays, 
from the First Folio of 1623 to the great Vario- 
rum Edition by Dr. Furness, begun in 1871. 

For the Tercentenary of Shakespeare's birth, 
celebrated in April, 1864, a special commemora- 
tive medal was struck in England, designed by 
Mr. J. Moore. The obverse shows a profile head 
of the poet, in the modelling of which the artist 
seems to have been chiefly influenced by the 
Stratford bust. This fundamental type he has 
not unskilfully combined with that of the Droe- 
shout print in the First Folio, the dome-like fore- 
head being evidently suggested by the latter. 
The nose is more accentuated than in the bust, 
and the mouth, though still small, is somewhat 
firmer. Toward the edge of the field are dis- 
posed the titles of his various works, as though 
radiating from the head, and in the exergue is 
his signature, framed by a half-garland over 
which extends a mace. The tribute offered to 
Shakespeare by the Muses, figured on the 
reverse, is a rather stiff and conventional compo- 
sition. 29 

29 W. Sharp Ogden, "Shakspere's Portraits: painted, 
graven, and medallic," in The British Numismatic Journal, 
and Proceedings of The British Numismatic Society, 1910, 
London, 191 1, pp. 143-198; see p. 189. 

69 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

For those who may wish to see the original 
form of the passages regarding precious stones in 
the text of the First Folio, of 1623, the page and 
column references have been given here. In 
this text the three sections into which the plays 
have been divided, Comedies, Histories, and 
Tragedies, are separately paged; moreover, the 
pagination offers a number of irregularities. 
Troilus and Cressida, added at the end of the 
"Histories," has page numbers on a couple of 
leaves neither connected with what precedes nor 
with what follows, the remainder of the pages 
bearing no figures; furthermore, there are several 
obvious, though unimportant, misprints. Peri- 
cles, first issued in Folio, in the Third Folio, of 
1664, is therein separately paged, as are the 
other of the plays attributed to Shakespeare 
printed therein, in continuation of the series of 
the First and Second Folios. This play had, 
however, previously appeared six times in 
quarto in the years 1609, 161 1, 1619, 1630, 1635 
and 1639. 



PRECIOUS STONES MENTIONED IN 
THE PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE 



PRECIOUS STONES MENTIONED IN THE 
PLAYS OF SHAKESPEARE 

DIAMOND 

I see how thine eye would emulate the diamond. 

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act iii, sc. 3, 1. 59. 
"Comedies," p. 58 [50], col. A, line 31. 

DIAMOND 

Give me the ring of mine you had at dinner, 
Or, for my diamond, the chain you promised. 

Comedy of Errors, Act iv, sc, 3. 1. 70. 
"Comedies," p. 94, col. B, lines 61, 62. 

DIAMOND 

Sir, I must have that diamond from you. — 
There, take it. 

Comedy of Errors, Act v, sc. 1, 1. 391. 
"Comedies," p. 99, col. B, line 58. 

DIAMOND 

A lady walled about with diamonds] 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 3. 
"Comedies," p. 137, col. A, line 6. 

DIAMOND 

A diamond gone, cost me two thousand ducats in 
Frankfort ! 

Merchant of Venice, Act iii, sc. 1, 1. 87. 
"Comedies," p. 173, col. A, line 62. 

73 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

DIAMOND 

Set this diamond safe 
In golden palaces, as it becomes. 

Henry VI, Pt. I, Act v, sc. 3, 1. 169. 
"Histories," p. 116, col. B, line 54. 

DIAMOND 

A heart it was, bound in with diamonds. 

Henry VI, Pt. II, Act iii, sc. 2, 1. 107. 
"Histories," p. 134, col. A, line 46. 

DIAMOND 

Not deck'd with diamonds and Indian stones, 
Nor to be seen. 

Henry VI, Pt. Ill, Act iii, sc. 1, 1. 63. 
"Histories," p. 158, col. B, line 25. 

DIAMOND 

One day he gives us diamonds, next day stones. 

Timon of Athens, Act iii, sc. 6, 1. 131. 
"Tragedies," p. 89, col. B, line 56. 

DIAMOND 

This diamond he greets your wife withal. 

Macbeth, Act ii, sc. 1, 1. 15. 
"Tragedies," p. 136, col. A, line 11. 

DIAMOND 

Which parted thence, 
As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. 

King Lear, Act iv, sc. 3, 1. 24. 
Omitted in First Folio. 

74 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Plays 

DIAMOND 

This diamond was my mother's; take it, heart; 
But keep it till you woo another wife. 

Cymbeline, Act I, sc. I, 1. 112. 
"Tragedies," p. 370, col. A, line 45. 

DIAMOND 

She went before others I have seen, as that diamond of 
yours outlustres many I have beheld. 

Cymbeline, Act i, sc. 4, 1. 78. 
"Tragedies," p. 372, col. A, line 53. 

DIAMOND 

I have not seen the most precious diamond that is, nor 
you the lady. 

Cymbeline, Act i, sc. 4, 1. 81. 
"Tragedies," p. 372, col. A, line 55. 

DIAMOND 

I shall but lend my diamond till your return. 

Cymbeline, Act. i, sc. 4, 1. 153. 
"Tragedies," p. 372, col. B, line 59. 

DIAMOND 

My ten thousand ducats are yours; so is your diamond too. 

Cymbeline, Act i, sc. 4, 1. 163. 
"Tragedies," p. 373, col. A, line 1. 

DIAMOND 

It must be married 
To that your diamond. 

Cymbeline, Act ii, sc. 4, 1. 98. 
"Tragedies," p. 389 [379] , col. A, lines 42, 43. 

75 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

DIAMOND 
That diamond upon your finger, say, 
How came it yours? 

Cymbeline, Act v, sc. 5, 1. 137. 
"Tragedies," p. 396, col. A, line 51. 

DIAMOND 

To me he seems like diamond to glass. 

Pericles, Act ii, sc. 3, 1. 36. 
Third Folio, 1664, p. 7, col. B, line 38; 

separate pagination. 

DIAMOND 

You shall, like diamonds, sit about his crown. 

Pericles, Act ii, sc. 4, 1. 53. 
Third Folio, 1664, p. 8, col. B, line 42. 

DIAMOND 

The diamonds of a most praised water 
Do appear, to make the world twice rich. 

Pericles, Act iii, sc. 2, 1. 102. 
Third Folio, 1664, p. 11, col. B, line 13. 

RUBY 

The impression of keen whips Fid wear as rubies. 

Measure for Measure, Act ii, sc. 4, 1. 101. 

"Comedies," p. 69, col. B, line 63. 

RUBY 

Her nose, all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, 
sapphires. 

Comedy of Errors, Act iii, sc. 2, 1. 138. 
"Comedies," p. 92, col. A, line 49. 
76 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Plays 

RUBY 

Those be rubies, fairy favors. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii, sc. 1, 1. 12. 

"Comedies," p. 148, col. A, line 35. 

RUBY 
Over thy wounds now do I prophesy, — 
Which, like dumb mouths, do ope their ruby lips. 
Julius Casar, Act iii, sc.i, 1. 260. 
"Tragedies," p. 120, col. B, lines 34, 35. 

RUBY 
And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks, 
When mine is blanch'd with fear. 

Macbeth, Act iii, sc. 4, 1. 115. 
"Tragedies," p. 142, col. B, line 17. 

RUBY 

But kiss; one kiss I Rubies unparagon'd, 
How dearly they do't! 

Cymbeline, Act ii, sc. 2, 1. 17. 
"Tragedies," p. 376, col. B, line 18. 

SAPPHIRE 

Like sapphire, pearl and rich embroidery. 

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v, sc. 5, 1. 75. 
"Comedies," p. 51, col. A, line 66 (last). 

SAPPHIRE 

Her nose, all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, 

sapphires. 

Comedy of Errors, Act iii, sc. 2, 1. 138. 
"Comedies," p. 92, col. A, line 49. 
77 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

CHRYSOLITE 

If heaven would make me such another world 
Of one entire and perfect chrysolite. 

Othello, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 145. 
"Tragedies," p. 337, col. A, line 5. 

TURQUOISE 

It was my turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a 
bachelor. 

Merchant of Venice, Act iii, sc. 1, 1. 126. 
"Comedies," p. 173, col. B, line 32. 

OPAL 

For thy mind is a very opal. 

Twelfth Night, Act ii, sc. 4, 1. 77. 
"Comedies," p. 262, col. B, line 45. 

AGATE (CAMEO) 

An agate very vilely cut. 
Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii, sc. 1, 1. 65. 
"Comedies," p. no, col. A, line 25. 

AGATE (CAMEO) 

His heart like an agate with your print impress'd. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act ii, sc. 1, 1. 236. 

"Comedies," p. 127, col. B, line 62 (last). 

AGATE (CAMEO) 

I was never manned with an agate till now. 

77 Henry IV, Act i, sc. 2, 1. 19. 
"Histories," p. 76, col. B, line 10. 
78 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Plays 

AGATE (CAMEO) 

Agate-ring, pirke-stocking, caddis-garter, smooth-tongue. 

/ Henry IV, Act ii, sc. 4, 1. 78. 
"Histories," p. 56, col. A, line 53. 

AGATE (CAMEO) 

In shape no bigger than an agate-stone 
On the forefinger of an alderman. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act i, sc. 4, 1. 55. 
"Tragedies," p. 57, col. A, lines 20, 21. 



AMBER 

Her amber hair for foul hath amber quoted. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv, sc. 3, 1. 87. 
"Comedies," p. 133, col. A, line 52. 

AMBER 

With amber bracelets, beads, and all this knavery. 
Taming of the Shrew, Act iv, sc. 3,1. 58. 
"Comedies," p. 223, col. B, line 62. 

AMBER 

Their eyes purging thick amber and plum-tree gum. 

Hamlet, Act ii, sc. 2, 1. 201. 
"Tragedies," p. 261, col. B, line 42. 

CORAL 

Of his bones are coral made. 

The Tempest, Act i, sc. 2, 1. 397. 
"Comedies," p. 5, col. A, line 54. 
79 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

CORAL 
I saw her coral lips to move. 

Taming of the Shrew, Act i, sc. I, 1. 179. 
"Comedies," p. 211, col. B, line 57. 

JET 

There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than 
between jet and ivory. 

Merchant of Venice, Act iii, sc. I, 1. 42. 
"Comedies," p. 173, col. A, line 18. 

JET 

What color is my gown of? — Black, forsooth: coal-black 

as jet. 

77 Henry VI, Act ii, sc.i, 1. 112. 

"Histories," p. 126, col. B, line 61. 

JET 

Two proper palfreys, black as jet, 

To hale thy vengeful waggon swift away. 

Titus Andronicus, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 50. 
"Tragedies," p. 49, col. B, line 7 

CARBUNCLE 

Her nose, all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, 
sapphires. 

Comedy of Errors, Act iii, sc. 2, 1. 138. 
"Comedies," p. 92, col. A, line 49. 

CARBUNCLE 

A carbuncle entire, as big as thou art, 
Were not so rich a jewel. 

Coriolanus, Act 1, sc. 4, 1. 55. 
'Tragedies," p. 5, col. B, line 7. 
80 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Plays 

CARBUNCLES 

O'er sized with coagulate gore, 
With eyes like carbuncles. 

Hamlet, Act ii, sc. ii, 1. 485. 
"Tragedies," p. 263, col. B, line 50. 

CARBUNCLE 

Were it carbuncled 
Like holy Phoebus' car. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act iv, sc.8, 1. 28. 
"Tragedies," p. 360, col. B, line 57. 

CARBUNCLE 

Had it been a carbuncle 
Of Phoebus' wheel. 

Cymbetxne, Act v, sc. 5, 1. 189. 
"Tragedies," p. 396, col. B, line 41. 

EMERALD 

In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white. 

Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v, sc. 5, 1. 74. 
"Comedies, p. 51, col. A, line 65. 

PEARLS 

Full fathom five thy father lies; 
Of his bones are coral made; 
Those are pearls that were his eyes. 

Tempest, Act 1, sc. 2, 1. 398. 
"Comedies," p. 5, col. A, lines 51-53. 

PEARLS 

She is mine own, 
And I as rich in having such a jewel 
As twenty seas, if all their sand were pearl. 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii, sc. 4, 1. 170* 
"Comedies," p. 26, col. B, lines 34-36. 
6 81 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

PEARLS 
A sea of melting pearl, which some call tears. 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii, sc. I, 1. 224. 
"Comedies," p. 30, col. B, line 2. 

PEARLS 

But pearls are fair; and the old saying is, 
Black men are pearls in beauteous ladies' eyes 
'Tis true; such pearls as put out ladies' eyes. 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act v, sc. 2, 1. II. 
" Comedies," p. 36, col. B, lines 10-12. 

PEARLS 

Like sapphire, pearl and rich embroidery 
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee. 
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act v, sc. 5, 1. 75. 
"Comedies," p. 51, col. A, lines 65, 66 (last). 

PEARLS 
Laced with silver, set with pearls. 
Much Ado About Nothing, Act iii, sc. 4, 1. 20. 
"Comedies," p. 112, col. B, line 65. 

PEARLS 
Fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act iv, sc. 2, 1. 91. 
"Comedies," p. 132, col. A, line II. 

PEARLS 

This and these pearls to me sent Longaville. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 53. 
"Comedies," p. 137, col. A, line 59. 
82 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Plays 

PEARLS 

Will you have me, or your pearl again? 
Neither of either. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 458. 
"Comedies," p. 140, col. B, line 58. 

PEARLS 

Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act i, sc. I, 1. 211. 
"Comedies," p. 147, col. A, line 6. 

PEARLS 
I must go seek some dewdrops here 
And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act ii, sc. I, 1. 15. 
"Comedies," p. 148, col. A, line 38. 

PEARLS 

That same dew, which sometime on the buds 
Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iv, sc. I, 1. 57. 
"Comedies," p. 157, col. B, lines 9, 10. 

PEARLS 
Rich honesty dwells like a miser, sir, in a poor house; as 
your pearl in your foul oyster. 

As You Like It, Act v, sc. 4, 1. 63. 
"Comedies," p. 206, col. A, line 12. 

PEARLS 

Their harness studded all with gold and pearl. 

Taming of the Shrew, Introd., sc. 2, 1. 44. 
"Comedies," p. 209, col. B, line 33. 
83 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

PEARLS 
Fine linen, Turkey cushions boss'd with pearls 
Valance of Venice gold. 

Taming of the Shrew, Act ii, sc. I, 1. 355. 
"Comedies," p. 217, col. B, line 32. 

PEARLS 
Why, sir, what 'cerns it you if I wear pearl and gold? 
Taming of the Shrew, Act v, sc. 1, 1. 77. 
"Comedies," p. 227, col. A, line 22. 

PEARLS 
This pearl she gave me, I do feel't and see't. 

Twelfth Night, Act iv, sc. 3, 1. 2. 
"Comedies," p. 271, col. B, line 61. 

PEARLS 
Draws those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes. 
King John, Act ii, sc. 1, 1. 169. 
"Histories," p. 4, col. B, line 55. 

PEARLS 
Our chains and our jewels. — 
Your brooches, pearls and ouches. 

77 Henry IV, Act ii, sc. 4, 1. 53. 
"Histories," p. 82, col. B, line 28. 

PEARLS 

The crown imperial, 
The intertissued robe of gold and pearl. 

Henry V, Act iv, sc. I, 1. 279. 
"Histories," p. 85 (bis, number repeated), col. B, 

line 13. 
84 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Plays 

PEARLS 

Wedges of gold, great anchors, heaps of pearl, 
Inestimable stones, unvalued jewels. 

Richard III, Act i, sc. 4, 1. 26. 
"Histories," p. 180, col. A, line 12. 

PEARLS 

The liquid drops of tears that you have shed 
Shall come again, transform'd to orient pearl. 

Richard III, Act iv, sc. 4, 1. 322. 
"Histories," p. 198, col. A, lines 16, 17. 

PEARLS 
Her bed is India; there she lies, a pearl. 

Troilus and Cressida, Act i, sc. I, 1. 103. 

At end of "Histories," page irregularly numbered 79, 

col. A, line 8. P. 589 of facsimile. 

PEARLS 

She Is a pearl 
Whose price hath launch'd above a thousand ships. 
Troilus and Cressida, Act ii, sc. 2, 1. 81. 
Unnumbered page, 596 of facsimile, col. A, line 19. 

PEARLS 
I will be bright, and shine in pearl and gold. 

Titus Andronicus, Act ii, sc. 1, 1. 19. 
"Tragedies," p. 35, col. B, line 30. 

PEARLS 

This is the pearl that pleased your empress' eye. 

Titus Andronicus, Act v, sc. 1, 1. 42. 
"Tragedies," p. 48, col. A, line 21. 
85 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

PEARLS 
I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl. 

Macbeth, Act v, sc. 8, 1. 56. 
"Tragedies," p. 151, col. B, line 32. 

PEARLS 

Hamlet, this pearl is thine. 

Hamlet, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 293. 
"Tragedies," p. 281, col. A, line 15. 

PEARLS 
What guests were in her eyes; which parted thence, 
As pearls from diamonds dropp'd. 

Lear, Act iv, sc. 3, 1. 24. 
Omitted in First Folio. 

PEARLS 
Like the base Indian,* threw a pearl away 
Richer than all his tribe. 

Othello, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 347. 
"Tragedies," p. 338, col. B, line 53. 

PEARLS 

He kiss'd, — the last of many doubled kisses, — 
This orient pearl. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act i, sc. 5, 1. 41. 

"Tragedies," p. 344, col. B, lines 22, 23. 

PEARLS 
I'll set thee in a shower of gold, and hail 
Rich pearls upon thee. 

Antony and Cleopatra, Act ii, sc. 5, 1. 46. 

"Tragedies," p. 348, col. B, lines 10, 11. 

♦"Iudean" in text. 

86 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Plays 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

His mistress 
Did hold his eyes lock'd in her crystal looks. 

Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii, sc. 4, 1. 89. 
"Comedies," p. 26, col. A, line 17. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

Methough all his senses were lock'd in his eye 
As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act ii, sc. I, 1. 243. 
"Comedies," p. 128, col. A, lines 6, 7. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes. 

Idem, Act iv, sc. 3, 1. 142. 
"Comedies," p. 133, line 46. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

To what, my love, shall I compare thine eye? 
Crystal is muddy. 
Midsummer Night's Dream, Act iii, sc. 2, 1. 139. 
"Comedies," p. 154, col. A, line 54. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

With these crystal beads heaven shall be bribed 
To do him justice. 

King John, Act ii, sc. 1, 1. 171. 
"Histories," p. 4, col. B, lines 57, 58. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

The more fair and crystal is the sky, 
The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. 

Richard II, Act 1, sc. i, 1. 41. 
"Histories," p. 23, col. A, line 41 (last). 
87 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

Go, clear thy crystals. 

Henry V, Act ii, sc. 3, 1. 56. 
"Histories," p. 75, col. B, line 65. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

Comets, importing change of times and states, 
Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky. 

/ Henry VI, Act i, sc. 1, 1. 3. 
"Histories," p. 96, col. A, lines 2, 3. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

But in that crystal scales let there be weigh'd 
Your lady's love against some other maid. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act i, sc. 2, 1. 101. 
"Tragedies," p. 55, col. B, lines 51, 52. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

Thy crystal window ope; look out. 

Cymbeline, Act v, sc. 4, 1. 81. 
"Tragedies," p. 394, col. A, line 12. 



88 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Plays 

The following table is arranged according to 
the frequency of precious stone mentions. 
The plays rank as follows: 

First* Prob- 

Pub- ably 

lished Written 

1623. 1609. Cymbeline 10 (diamond 7, ruby i, 

carbuncle 1, rock- 
crystal 1). 

1598. 1591. Love's Labour's Lost S (pearl 3, rock-crystal 2, 

diamond 1, amber 1, 
agate 1). 

1600. 1597. Merry Wives of 

Windsor 5 (pearl 1, diamond 2, 

emerald 1, sapphire 

1623. 1 591. Comedy of Errors ... 5 (diamond 2, ruby 1, 

sapphire 1, carbuncle 1). 
1600. 1595. Midsummer Night's 

Dream 5 (pearl 3, ruby 1, rock- 
crystal 1). 
1623. 1596. Taming of the Shrew 5 (pearl 3, amber 1, coral 

1). " 
1623. 1591. Two Gentlemen of 

Verona 4 (pearl 3, rock-crystal 

1). 

1594. 1593. Titus Andronicus . . .3 (pearl 2, jet 1). 

1603. 1602. Hamlet 3 (pearl, amber, car- 
buncle). 

1623. 1606. Macbeth 3 (diamond, ruby, pearl). 

1609. 1607. Pericles 3 (all diamond). 

*Data of first publication contributed by Miss Henri- 
etta C. Bartlett. 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 



First 


Prob- 






Pub- 


ably- 






lished 


Written 






1623. 


1608. 


Antony and Cleo- 








patra 3 


(pearl 2, carbuncle 1) 


1597. 


I59I- 


Romeo and Juliet. . . 2 


(rock-crystal, agate). 


1623. 


1592. 


I Henry VI 2 


(diamond and rock- 
crystal). 


1623. 


1592. 


77 Henry VI 2 


(diamond and jet). 


1597- 


1592- 


-3 . Richard III 2 


(both pearl). 


1600. 


1594- 


Merchant of Venice . 2 


(turquoise, jet). 


1623. 


I594- 


King John 2 


(pearl, rock-crystal). 


1623. 


1597- 


77 Henry IV 2 


(pearl, agate). 


1600. 


1598. 


Henry V 2 


(pearl, crystal). 


1600. 


1599- 


Much Ado About 








Nothing 2 


(pearl, agate). 


1623. 


1599- 


Twelfth Night 2 


^pearl, opal). 


1609. 


1603. 


Troilus and Cressida 2 


(both pearl). 


1622. 


1604. 


Othello 2 


(pearl, chrysolite). 


1608. 


1606. 


Lear 2 


^pearl, diamond). 


1623. 


1611. 


Tempest 2 


(pearl, coral). 


1623. 


1592. 


777 Henry VI 1 


(diamond). 


1597. 


1593- 


Richard II 1 


(rock-crystal). 


1598. 


1597. 


7 Henry IV 1 


^agate). 


1623. 


1599- 


As You Like It .... 1 


(pearl). 


1623. 


1601. 


Julius Casar 1 


(ruby). 


1623. 


1604. 


Measure for Measure 1 


(ruby). 


1623. 


1607. 


Timon of Athens . . . 1 


(diamond). 


1623. 


1608. 


Coriolanus 1 


(carbuncle). 



PRECIOUS STONES MENTIONED IN 
THE POEMS OF SHAKESPEARE 



PRECIOUS STONES MENTIONED IN THE 
POEMS OF SHAKESPEARE. 

DIAMOND 

The diamond — why 'twas beautiful and hard. 

"Lover's Complaint," 1. 211. 

SAPPHIRE 

The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend 
With objects manifold. 

Idem, 1. 215. 

PEARLS 

Her tears began to turn their tide, 

Being prison'd in her eye like pearls in glass. 

"Venus and Adonis," 1. 980. 
G, verso, 1. 1, 2. 

PEARLS 

And wiped the brinish pearl from her bright eyes. 

"Lucrece," 1. 1213. 
I 2, 1. 2. 

PEARLS 

Those round clear pearls of his, that move thy pity, 
Are balls of quenchless fire to burn thy city. 

Idem, I. 1553. 
L 2, verso, 1. 6, 7. 

PEARLS 

Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood. 

"Lover's Complaint," 1. 198. 
93 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

PEARLS 

Ah! but those tears are pearls which thy love sheds. 

Sonnet XXXIV, 1. 13. 
C4, I. 13- 
PEARLS 
Bright orient pearl, alack, too timely shaded! 

"Passionate Pilgrim," 1. 133. 
B 4, 1. 3. 

OPAL 

The heaven-hued sapphire and the opal blend 
With objects manifold. 

"Lover's Complaint," 1. 215. 

RUBY 
Once more the ruby-colour'd portal open'd. 

"Venus and Adonis," 1. 451. 
D ii, verso, 1. 1. 

RUBY 

Of paled pearls and rubies red as blood. 

"Lover's Complaint," 1. 198. 

EMERALD 

The deep-green emerald, in whose fresh regard 
Weak sights their sickly radiance do amend. 

Idem, 1. 213. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

But hers through which the crystal tears gave light, 
Shone like the moon in water seen by night. 

"Venus and Adonis," 1. 491. 
D iii, 1. 16, 17. 
94 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Poems 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

Nor thy soft hands, sweet lips, and crystal eyne. 

"Venus and Adonis," 1. 633. 
Eii, 1. 15. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

The crystal tide that from her two cheeks fair 
In the sweet channel of her bosom dropt. 

Idem, 1. 957* 
G, 1.3,4- 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

Her eyes seen in the tears, tears in her eye; 
Both crystals, where they view'd each other's sorrow. 

Idem, 1. 9 62 > 9 6 3- 
G, 1. 8, 9. 

ROCK-CRYSTALS 

Through crystal walls each little mote will peep. 

"Lucrece," 1. 1251. 
I 2, verso, 1. 19. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

A closet never pierced with crystal eyes. 

Sonnet XLVI, 1. 6. 
D 2, verso, 1. 6. 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

Favours from a maund 1 she drew 
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet. 

"Lover's Complaint," 1. 37- 



1 Basket, or hamper. 

95 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

ROCK-CRYSTAL 

Who glazed with crystal gate the glowing roses. 

" Lover's Complaint," 1. 286. 

AMBER 
With coral clasps and amber studs. 

"Passionate Pilgrim," 1. 366. 
D 4, verso, 1. 2. 

AMBER 

Favours from a maund she drew 
Of amber, crystal, and of beaded jet. 

"Lover's Complaint," 1. 37. 

JET 

as above. 

CORAL 

That sweet coral mouth 
Whose precious taste her thirsty lips well knew. 

"Venus and Adonis," 1. 542. 
D iv, 1. 20, 21. 

CORAL 

Her alabaster skin, 
Her coral lips, her snow white dimpled chin. 

"Lucrece," 1. 420. 
D 3, 1. 7. 

CORAL 

Like ivory conduits coral cisterns filling. 

Idem, 1. 1234. 
I 2, verso, 1. 2. 
96 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Poems 

CORAL 

Coral is far more red than her lips' red. 

Sonnet CXXX, !. 2. 
H 4, L 2. 

CORAL 

A belt of straw and ivy buds. 
With coral clasps and amber studs. 

"Passionate Pilgrim," 1. 366. 
D 4, verso, 1. 1, 2. 2 

While it cannot be regarded as certain that 
whenever Shakespeare writes of jewels or of 
rings he means those in which precious stones 
were set, several of the passages more or less 
clearly indicate this, and we therefore present 
here the more characteristic of the lines in 
question : 

A Death's face in a ring. 

Love's Labour's Lost, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 616. 
"Comedies," p. 142, col. A, line 36. 
The dearest ring in Venice will I give you. 

Merchant of Venice, Act iv, sc. 1, 1. 435. 
"Comedies," p. 181, col. B, line 27. 



2 References are here given to the original editions of 
"Venus and Adonis," 1593 (unique copy in the Malone 
Collection in the Bodleian Library, Oxford); "Lucrece," 
1594; "Passionate Pilgrim," 1599, and Sonnets, 1609. As 
there is no continuous pagination, the letters and numbers 
refer to the page signatures and to the line of the page. 

97 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

Diana. O behold this ring 

Whose high respect and rich validity 
Did lack a parallel; yet for all that 
He gave it to a commoner of the camp, 
If I be one. 

Count. He blushes, and 'tis it: 

Of six preceding ancestors, that gem, 
Conferr'd by testament to the sequent issue, 
Hath it been owned and worn. 

AIVs Well That Ends Well, Act v, sc. 3, 1. 191-198. 
"Comedies," p. 253, col. A, lines 1-8. 

My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter! 
Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats! 
Justice! the law! my ducats and my daughter! 
A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats, 
Of double ducats, stolen from me by my daughter! 
And jewels, two stones, two rich and precious stones, 
Stolen by my daughter! Justice! find the girl; 
She hath the stones upon her, and the ducats. 

Merchant of Venice, Act ii, sc. 8, 1. 15-22. 
"Comedies," p. 171, col. B, lines 23-30. 

I would my daughter were dead at my foot, and the 
jewels in her ear! 

Merchant of Venice, Act iii, sc. 1, 1. 92. 
"Comedies," p. 173, col. B, lines 1, 2. 

Sweet are the uses of adversity, 

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, 

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. 

As You Like It, Act ii, sc. 1, 1. 13-15. 
"Comedies," p. 190, col. A, lines 10-12. 
98 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Poems 

Win her with gifts, if she respect not words: 
Dumb jewels often in their silent kind 
More than quick words do move a woman's mind. 
Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act iii, sc. I, 1. 89-91. 
"Comedies," p. 29, col. A, lines 63-65. 

I frown the while; and perchance wind up my watch, 
or play with my — some rich jewel. 

Twelfth Night, Act ii, sc. 5, 1. 64-66. 
"Comedies," p. 263, col. B, lines 32, 33. 

A jewel in a ten-times-barr'd-up chest 
Is a bold spirit in a loyal breast. 

King Richard II, Act i, sc. 1, 1. 180, 181. 
"Histories," p. 24, col. B, lines 28, 29. 

This royal throne of Kings, this scepter'd isle, 
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
This other Eden, demi-paradise, 
This fortress built by Nature for herself 
Against infection and the hand of war, 
This happy breed of men, this little world, 
This precious stone set in the silver sea, 
Which serves it in the office of a wall 
Or as a moat defensive to a house, 
Against the envy of less happier lands, 
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. 
King Richard II, Act ii, sc. I, 1. 40-46. 
"Histories," p. 28, col. B, lines 17-23. 

In argument and proof of which contract, 
Bear her this jewel, pledge of my affection. 

/ Henry VI, Act v, sc. 2, 1. 46, 47. 
"Histories," p. 115, col. A, lines 8, 9. 
99 



Shakespeare and Precious Stones 

It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night, 
Like a rich jewel in an Ethiop's ear; 
Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act i, sc. 5, 1. 47-49. 

"Tragedies," p. 57, col. B, lines 59-61. 

But chiefly to take thence from her dead finger 
A precious ring, a ring that I must use 
In dear employment. 

Romeo and Juliet, Act v, sc. 3, 1. 30-32. 
"Tragedies," p. 75, col. A, lines 34-36. 

A striking proof that Shakespeare had no fear 
of tautology when he wished to strengthen the 
impression of a word by constant reiteration is 
given in the Merchant of Venice (Act v, sc. 2), 
whence we have already quoted a few lines. The 
passage concerns the disposal by Bassanio of a 
ring he had received from Portia, and he an- 
swers her thus in the First Folio text: 3 

Bassanio. Sweet Portia, 

If you did know to whom I gave the Ring, 
If you did know for whom I gave the Ring, 
And would conceive for what I gave the Ring, 
And how unwillingly I left the Ring, 
When naught would be accepted but the Ring, 
You would abate the strength of your displeasure. 

3 First Folio, "Comedies," p. 183, col. B, lines 36-46. 

100 



Precious Stones Mentioned in Poems 

Portia. 

If you had knowne the virtue of the Ring, 
Or halfe her worthinesse that gave the Ring, 
Or your owne honour to containe the Ring, 
You would not then have parted with the Ring. 

It was probably more than a coincidence that 
Shakespeare's first printed book, "Venus and 
Adonis," was published, in 1593, by a fellow- 
townsman, Richard Field, who had come up to 
London from Stratford when a mere boy. Un- 
doubtedly, when Shakespeare met him in the 
bustle of city life, the common memories of their 
quieter native town served at once as an intro- 
duction and as a link between them. Field also 
published Shakespeare's "Lucrece" in the year 
1594. He had been a freeman of the Station- 
ers' Company from February 6, 1587, and died 
either in the year the First Folio was issued, or 
in the succeeding year, 1624. 




Printer's mark of Richard Field, as shown on the title-page of the first 
edition of Shakespeare's " Venus and Adonis," 1593, the unique copy of which 
is in the Bodleian Library, Oxford. A hand emerging from a cloud upholds 
the "Anchor of Hope," about which are twined two laurel branches. 



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